WASHINGTON — It's less than 70 days before the first ballots of the 2016 presidential campaign are cast in Iowa and the question that seems to be on everyone's mind is this one: Can anything stop Donald Trump?

A veteran Republican operative thinks she might have the answer: a so-called "guerilla campaign" to "defeat and destroy" the campaign of the businessman who continues to hold a lead in most polls.

"I think that there are a lot of people who have been asking for months when is this guy going to implode? What has to happen for him to go away," Liz Mair, the GOP operative behind the Trump Card LLC effort, told Mashable. "While I don't want to sit here and telegraph all of our strategy, I think it's fair to say that the approach is...different...to what a lot of other campaigns and groups look like."

The effort was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, but Mair said conversations about the effort have been ongoing for months.

"In the absence of our efforts, Trump is exceedingly unlikely to implode or be forced out of the race," a memo distributed to Republican donors states. "The stark reality is that unless something dramatic and unconventional is done, Trump will be the Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton will become president."

Trump Card LLC's strategy will eschew some of the traditional modes of messaging used by the party establishment, Mair told Mashable, instead focusing on grassroots communication and so-called "earned media" rather than paid ad buys.

Mair said that the Republican party can be "far too dependent" on large cable news buys, and that their effectiveness is "diminishing over time."

"I think that when you're looking at particular constituencies including a lot of the Trump voters, I don't think that a lot of those people are sitting around watching Fox News 24-7," she said.

According to the memo, Mair and her allies — which include veteran Florida operative Rick Wilson — aren't looking to change the minds of Trump's supporters. They're hoping those supporters simply stay home.

Mair said that while she'd be "ecstatic" if Trump's backers were to support another conservative Republican, making sure that they do so isn't "particularly high priority."

The Trump Card LLC effort comes as Republicans are ratcheting up their attacks on Trump. Donors with a wide swath of Republican political alliances have thrown their backing behind a separate advertising campaign targeting Trump. That effort is being launched by the New Day for America super PAC, which is supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich's presidential bid.The twin efforts represent the most organized efforts yet determined to stop Trump.

"I think that a lot of Americans have been feeling like we're stuck in a very strange and bizarre dream for a while in which Trump is polling well and performing well," Mair said when asked about the intensifying pressure on Trump from within the party. "I think it's taken people a long time to awaken to the fact that yes, this is reality, and it has to be addressed."

Mair declined to name specific backers of the effort, only speaking in broad terms to chart the ideological diversity of funders.

"We've had a lot of interest from bigger donors who are supportive of candidates like Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, also Scott Walker," Mair said. Since Friday, she added, the effort has been of interest to backers of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Mair is not an unknown commodity in national politics. She directed online strategy for the Republican National Committee in 2008 and for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 2012 recall election. She also advised Carly Fiorina during her unsuccessful 2010 California Senate bid and has consulted for former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Trump tweeted a thinly-veiled response to the effort on Friday calling Mair a "wacko."

A woman who got fired after two days of working with Scott Walker - a wacko - now trying to raise funds to fight me.

Mair, who resigned from Walker's presidential campaign after Twitter posts about the status of the Iowa caucuses in the presidential nominating process, seemed unfazed Monday when asked about Trump's response so far.

"I think that Donald Trump's tweet calling me a wacko is worthy of being printed off and framed. It's a nice little bit of political memorabilia," she said.

"The more time he spends doing that, the less time he's gonna spend locking down votes," she added.

Mashable
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